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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30033801">black hole heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyvtae/pseuds/kyvtae'>kyvtae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(it's me i'm yangyang), Alternate Universe - Grocery Store, Demon Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Demons, Fantasy, Grocery Shopping, Liu Yang Yang Needs a Nap, M/M, Square: Demonic Creatures, Walmart, but for ancient ritual supplies, gugudan as background characters because i miss them, that's a cursed tag if i've ever seen one, they get together after i swear</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:27:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,821</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30033801</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyvtae/pseuds/kyvtae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yangyang had seen a lot of things in his time working at Walmart. A demon from another realm, however? That was new.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Liu Yang Yang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>NCT Walmart Fic Fest R1, THE COLLECTION</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>black hole heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It takes a certain kind of person to voluntarily take the night shift at the SM University Walmart. There are many virtues required (namely: kindness, compassion, the ability to not fall asleep in the middle of the night, and a calm disposition), but Liu Yangyang has none of those virtues. It’s something he’s bragged about to his coworkers on several Fridays at 4 a.m., something that they’ve insisted on is a “fatal flaw” or “reason for termination.” And yet, Yangyang is still here.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>In fact, he’s not even quite sure how he got this job to begin with, outside of his older sister Xiening’s constant bargaining with her girlfriend Sojin for a good word in with their manager. Yangyang certainly wasn’t the best person for the job (if the zero “Employee of the Month” wins were anything to go by), but he liked to think he made up for it in awkward smiles or bad dad jokes learned from his dorm monitors.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All of this was to say that Yangyang was completely unprepared for the demon that showed up at two in the morning one cursed Tuesday night.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So did you find everything okay?” Yangyang walked over to the frozen food aisle, looking for the slightly suspicious customer he’d seen heading that way. He’d been wearing all black, long hood obscuring most of his face, and carried what Yangyang had originally assumed was a large foam staff. Now, Yangyang wasn’t one to judge (he’d done his fair share of Vocaloid cosplays back in middle school), but he was definitely questioning the medieval getup.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The figure turned around as Yangyang got nearer, and he could see the wispy smoke wafting out from underneath its sleeves. </span>
  <em>
    <span>No smoking on my watch</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Yangyang thought. Maybe by kicking this weirdo out he’d get a star sticker or two.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you! Guy in the robe! You can’t smoke in here. Don’t you see the sign?” </span>
  <em>
    <span>There. That would do it.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Yangyang smiled, face obscured by his mask, and crossed his arms to seem bigger and stronger. It didn’t work, instead succeeding at making him look even more tired than the computer science majors that worked in the meat section.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The person (man? boy? child? Yangyang wasn’t sure) started laughing, high-pitched tone throwing him completely off-guard. “So this isn’t an Underworld DeathMart?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>DeathMart? What was a DeathMart? Was this some kind of practical joke?</span>
  </em>
  <span> It wasn’t anytime close to April Fool’s Day, but Yangyang was sure the other guy had just gotten the date wrong. After all, there was no way that he could be serious about some sort of “DeathMart.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, from the look on your face I’d say you’ve seen a ghost! Or… a devil, rather!” The mysterious man kept laughing, cracking himself up with jokes Yangyang couldn’t quite decipher. “Oh, who am I kidding. You don’t know what I’m talking about.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yangyang most certainly did </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> know what he was talking about.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My name is Lee Haechan, and I am, unfortunately, the Prince of Darkness. You can laugh now.” If that wasn’t the most absurd sentence Yangyang had heard in his year of Walmart duties, he’d eat his sister’s limited edition Louis Vuitton handbag (he wouldn’t, she would kill him). </span>
  <em>
    <span>Lee Haechan, Prince of Darkness?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Yangyang wasn’t super up to code on his hanja lessons (he’d finish his edpuzzles when Professor Do yelled at him), but he was pretty sure that name meant “full sun.” Even if he was wrong, and there wasn’t a mistake in the translation, then what was a Prince of Darkness supposed to mean anyway?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I think it’s best if I just show you, kind mortal.” Okay, now the self-proclaimed prince was just messing with him. Show him what? There was no way-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Small black orbs rose from the floor, rotating around Haechan’s hands. Yangyang tried to look at them, but kept being blinded, as though they sucked all the light out from everything in their grasp. They were voids infecting the air, black holes filled with the shitty blue LEDs blinking precariously up above the pair, threatening to plunge the entire store into darkness. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan seemed to realize this, and withdrew his hands from the air, instead opting to cross his own arms ominously. His stance succeeded in looking intimidating, and Yangyang decided to retract his earlier statement about the other boy’s title. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fine. Maybe he</span>
  </em>
  <span> was </span>
  <em>
    <span>the “Prince of Darkness” or whatever. But that didn’t explain DeathMart and the reason why he was </span>
  </em>
  <span>here</span>
  <em>
    <span> in this Walmart.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Yangyang almost wanted to call the police on him, have them sort out Haechan’s otherworldly powers.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan seemed to notice his discomfort yet again, and slid his hood off in what looked like an attempt at a placating gesture (it was kind of threatening, to be honest, or at least bordering the line between terrifying and hot). He revealed a kind smile, offset by long pointy teeth and glowing purple eyes. His hair (caramel brown and wavy) flowed backwards as if blown by an invisible wind from somewhere in the store. Light brown freckles dotted his face, giving Haechan a youthful yet intimidating appearance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He might have been a Prince of Darkness, but Yangyang wished he’d be the Prince of his Heart.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan held out a gloved hand (fingerless, and black with blue accents) and softened his gaze. “I need your help.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My help? Why would you need my help? You’re… some </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span>, some </span>
  <em>
    <span>being</span>
  </em>
  <span>, some </span>
  <em>
    <span>godlike creature</span>
  </em>
  <span> who can summon weird sucking balls from the sky- oh that sounds… not great.” Yangyang’s face turned red as he nervously wiped the back of his neck with the sleeve of his Walmart brand white dress shirt. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Way to go Yangyang. Embarrassing yourself in front of the eldritch abomination. Great job.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan, fortunately, was amused by his actions (or at least, not gravely offended enough to smite him with his jazz hands of darkness). He retracted his hand, noticing Yangyang wasn’t going to take it anytime soon, and stuck both inside his pockets, shifting his body antsily. “To… uh… put it lightly… I may have sliiightly traveled through dimensions and marked you as my anchor to this realm. No big deal though, or anything.” He looked away, trying to downplay the situation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Traveled through dimensions? Anchor to this realm?? No big deal???” Yangyang almost blew up, right there in the frozen foods section. He tried to keep his voice calm though, for the sake of Hyeyeon in Toys and Games and Mina in Clothes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, seriously. I’m from a world of death and destruction, what you might think of as Hell or the </span>
  <span>Underworld. I never meant to come here, but now I’m stuck and can’t exactly leave your presence… hence, the Walmart.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you need from me to get back?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well for starters, a lot of sand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span></span><br/>
<span><br/>
</span>
  <span>They traveled to the Pets aisle for the sand (all 47 bags of it), while Yangyang tried not to groan. Haechan wouldn’t dream of getting his coat dirty (Yangyang had insisted that aquarium sand wouldn’t do anything to Haechan’s long frock, but he still insisted on not doing any heavy lifting), so Yangyang had to load it all into the shopping cart alone.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Next on the list was the blood of an angel, and Yangyang was pretty sure he didn’t have that on Earth, but there had to be a substitute. 31 cans of Bang would probably do the trick. Haechan looked curiously at the stack (“You drink that? For fun?”) before sighing slightly and looking for the last couple items.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Firewood and a lighter were easy enough to find (the Outdoor Sports section was pretty large), and with those two discoveries they were ready for the start of what Haechan called “The Ritual.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It started with a return to the Frozen Foods aisle (Yangyang didn’t want to give Sejeong in Outdoor Sports a heart attack with the otherworldly chanting he assumed was going to be happening). They blocked off an aisle with sand, supposedly also blocking it off from the outside world to “channel Darkness Energy” or something. Yangyang had no idea how that worked, but considering that everything had stopped making sense to his tired brain hours ago, he was content to let Haechan take the lead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan poured the rest of the sand onto the white tiled floor, muttering slightly under his breath as he worked. Yangyang almost asked why he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span> okay with all of the debris, but decided against it lest he be banished to some unforsaken realm (like the Denny’s across the street). He poured out the cans of Bang (cotton candy flavored, of course) one by one in intricate patterns across the sand, lighting a fire above the makeshift altar with the firestarters from Outdoor Sports.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The fire alarms started to sound, but Haechan wasn’t worried. After all, the depressingly lit ceiling of the SM University Walmart had been replaced with thundering clouds, all crackling with blue lights and shimmering with those black hole objects Yangyang had seen earlier. The air tingled with what he could assume was magic, and Haechan’s fingertips started to flicker in and out of existence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Wait! Don’t go.” Yangyang didn’t entirely know why he wanted the demon to stay, especially now that he’d be tasked with explaining the whole mess in Frozen Foods after the portal closed, but he couldn’t think of losing Haechan now that he’d found him once. Maybe it was that whole “anchor” thing. Maybe it was love. Maybe it was the fact that he was a literal devil sent from below. Yangyang wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he wanted the other boy to stay.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Haechan held out a flickering hand, several fingers already lost to the rip in reality. He grabbed a hold of Yangyang’s (barely, just barely), and traced a symbol on his palm. “I’ll miss you, but you know how to find me now. Remember, we’re linked now. Just follow the sand.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And with that, he was gone. Yangyang fell to the floor, not realizing he had been floating nearly three feet above his current position. Nayoung grabbed him by the wrists, shaking him of any stubborn sand and clearing his head of the lovesick sparkles that still remained.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The manager will hear about this one!” She screeched, obviously upset about having another night ruined by Yangyang’s antics. He laid back down on the ground and sighed. It would be worth it, getting fired from Walmart. He wouldn’t have to clean up after messy customers (or demon princes performing satanic rituals) anymore, he wouldn’t have to stay up at all hours of the night in case someone had a question about a certain type of frozen vegetable, and he’d have all the free time in the world to figure out how to open up a tear in reality again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All the free time in the world to fix his black hole heart.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>HUGE shoutout to mod wammy of nctwalmart and my beta, mab. couldn’t have done it without you guys!!</p><p>as always, comments and kudos are much appreciated. love y’all &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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